Sumeet Agarwal

Skills

Comfortable in basically any modern programming language, expert knowledge of Python and Ruby, and strong in Go, JavaScript and Rust. At companies, I typically worked closer to the backend but could pitch in and help out with the web, iOS or Android apps if needed.

Very effective at working with legacy code, including incremental refactoring and fostering an environment of viewing legacy or “bad” code in a productive, non-judgmental and understanding way.

Can lead large groups of engineers and business people to break down product requirements into estimates with milestones.

Love computers, love software. Believe in building the right thing depending on the problem, which can often be high quality, solid and clean software. Or just good enough slapped-together throw-away code.

I’ve been programming since high school. I was contributing to open source and worked on a team on a very popular Soundcloud-like website for musicians to publish and get feedback on video game music arrangements.

Experience

Self, 2018 - 2019

I love that tools for programmers like shells, terminals and text editors can feel super productive, allowing chainable commands and seemingly endless customization. When I really pay attention closely I find them cumbersome to use. I accumulated a lot of ideas about editor UIs, and set off to make a graphical programming interface that retains some of that Vim hacker feeling. I think it’s possible to for an org to be 10 or 100x more productive with the same number of people with the right tools.

It is a massive undertaking, so I’ve been taking on some commercial work as a way to stay connected to real-world development.

Freelance work

Personal projects

Remind, San Francisco, CA

Product and infrastructure engineer, 2015 – 2018

Worked on the Remind messaging platform, a messaging program connecting over 30 million parents, students and teachers in almost every school in the US. Led development on numerous products, including bulk administration tools for school and district leaders, and 2-way messaging between students, teachers and parents.

Devised several large-scale infrastructure projects, fixing performance issues unique to a high traffic messaging app with 30 million users, and implemented organization-wide changes to significantly reduce the app’s error rate.

SocialChorus, San Francisco, CA

Senior product engineer, 2015

Maintained a web-based employee outreach SaaS, used by very large companies like Coca Cola and Target, in an XP (eXtreme Programming) environment. Test driven development and daily pair programming.

Yelp, San Francisco, CA

Software lead, 2010 – 2014

Lead developer on Yelp’s consumer line of products, including Yelp Deals, Gift Certificates and food delivery. Worked on email deliverability, handling payments, large team project coordination, and pioneered more efficient testing and code organization methods.

Sogeti, Dayton, OH

Corporate IT, internal tools, 2009 – 2010

Worked on the in-house IT team of a 2000+ employee IT consulting firm based all over the US.

College and background

Boston University – Boston, MA, 2008

Born and brought up in the USA, living mostly on the east coast. I got my first computer when I was 4 from my uncle who was a software engineer, and have been enamored by the thing ever since. I learned how to use MS-DOS by watching my older cousin, and then began to follow the Internet revolution. Significant moments include begging my uncle to drive to Staples to pick up a copy of the Windows 95 CD-ROM on release day, meeting a precocious friend who introduced me to Linux on the first day of 5th grade, entering high school and finding out that the Latin teacher is a Linux nerd, and joining numerous communities via IRC (Internet Relay Chat), the old school chat system that Slack is loosely modeled after.